Note from Anne – this is the first romance novel I owned, the one that started me on my love affair with romance. It hasn’t stood the test of time, though. Back in the day, I reread this countless times. I set romance aside for a few years and when I got back into it, I didn’t care for this one any more. I actually ended up giving it away, because it made me feel yucky. Kudos to Kate for taking on the challenge of reading My First Romance Novel.
Grade – C-
Hotness Level – Blaze
Kink Level – None
Genre-Historical
Series – Bride Series #1
Reviewed by Kate
Douglas, Earl of Northcliffe, needs a bride and an heir to get his family off his back. Due to a scheduling conflict, he sends his cousin, Tony, to wed the beautiful Melissande by proxy. Unfortunately for Douglas, Tony and Melissande fall madly in love and elope. Not wanting to return to Douglas empty handed, Tony makes the choice to proxy-marry Melissande’s younger sister, Alexandra, to Douglas instead — without informing him.
Douglas spends most of the book telling Alexandra he wishes she were her sister. Alexandra, who has secretly loved Douglas for the last 3 years, spends the book alternating between planning ways to make Douglas love her and trying to run away.
While Douglas The Ass and Wishy-Washy Alexandra are the main characters, Tony and Melissande’s relationship is also a focal point — a disturbing focal point. Melissande, being beautiful, is very self-centered. Tony, being her husband, must train her to be a better person. This takes the form of “I’m your husband, you must do as say,” but left me feeling almost dirty. It came off as belittling, embarrassing, and degrading.
The repeated references to Alexandra’s spine being strapped to a broom handle and Douglas’s continued use of “tell me you understand” got tedious. A sub-plot involving a kidnapped mistress leading to Alexandra being kidnapped herself added another layer of weirdness to the story.
All in all, I’m glad I didn’t waste money on this one.
personal
When You Don’t Get What You’re Expecting
So, I just finished all 38 pages of Cara McKenna’s Brazen.
There. Enjoy that cover goodness! For about 37 pages I was in love with this short story. It’s different. It’s really hot. Caroline and Sean are awesome together. And Caroline put together an honest to goodness harem of young men who are on a schedule to come and hang out with her each evening. (Or should I say hang out and come with her???) But on that last page… it’s not a happy ending. They each go their own way. I just didn’t see it coming and it really caught me off guard! (Note to self: check tags on goodreads reviews to look for HEA before reading.) I think I still would have read it if I’d known it was just about a short affair. I think I would have liked it better for knowing what I was getting into, actually. Which brings me to my point…
I hate it when I don’t get what I’m expecting! I read to escape my real life. I expect a HEA, and I appreciate some hot sex along the way. But I’m picky about that, too. I like to know what kind of heat level to expect before I read. I’m generally ok if a book is hotter than I expected, but if I’m expecting explicit love scenes and I don’t get them, it leaves me disappointed.
Most of the time, reading for escape, I’m reading for an HEA. The new 50 Shades trend of trilogies where you only get the HEA after all three books? Drives me CRAZY. I don’t want to wait that long! But it makes me horribly mad to read and find a cliffhanger ending when I’m not expecting it! That’s rare now, as I’m reading more reviews and on the lookout for such manipulations! I’d rather think of the trilogy as one big book, and I don’t want to read them unless I can read them all.
There are excpetions, of course, because I totally love Dallas and Roarke (J.D. Robb) and I think I’ll read anything in the Kate Daniels world (though I’m a book behind!) and these are both series that stay with the same couple all the way through. Oh, and the Adrian English series by Josh Lanyon goes on that same couple series list. In each of these cases, the book itself comes to a pretty satisfactory ending, it just leaves you wanting more – not teetering at the edge of a cliffhanger.
So I know what I want. And I’ll read reviews and snoop around to make sure I’m getting what I want. And if I’m goign to step out of my usual, I like to know it going in. (Ummm, yeah, people have mentioned that i might have some control issues. It’s ok, I’ve got it under control.) How about you? Do you enjoy a surprise? Are you ok with a cliffhanger? What do you think? ~Anne
The Bride Finder by Susan Carroll
Last week Kate and I (Anne) were on the phone and she mentioned that she’d checked her FIRST out from the library again. Her FIRST, the very first romance novel she’d ever read, the one that made her fall in love with romance. We both wondered if it would still be as good now as it was then. (I’ve never read it, I just wondered with her.) So, she read it, loved it, and decided to write up a review for us. So here’s to firsts! What was your first romance novel? Would it still be good today? ~Anne
Grade-A
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Genre-historical, touch of paranormal
Series – St. Leger #1
Reviewed by Kate
When I was 19 or 20, I ran across The Bride Finder in the check out lane of our local Shopko. The title alone fascinated me. I bought it without even reading the back. It turned out to be my first romance, one of my best impulse buys, and still one of my favorites to this day.
Anatole St.Leger comes from a rather strange family. Some of his ancestors have been conjurers, clairvoyants, exorcists, sorcerers, etc. Anatole’s own powers include seeing visions of the future, sensing a person’s presence, and levitating objects.
One of the family’s unique members is the Bride Finder, a person able to locate the one true mate for each St.Leger male. Anatole’s father chose to marry someone who was not chosen by the Bride Finder. Anatole’s mother ended up being terrified of her son and his powers. As a result, Anatole grew up feeling unloved and shut off from the world. Reluctantly, he sends the Bride Finder out to find his one true bride, determined to keep his powers a secret from her. It would crush him to have another person he loves be terrified of him.
When Madeline arrives at Anatole’s castle, she find herself facing a husband who won’t open up to her and a house full of secrets. Ever a logical person, she is determined to show Anatole the truth behind all of his family’s legends and myths. Little does she know…
A magical journey of Madeline fighting her way to the heart Anatole locked away years ago, and Anatole doing his best to keep himself from falling in love. I don’t think I can say enough to recommend this book except:
1. This is the book that I most regret donating when we moved, and
2. When I checked this book out from the library, even my husband got excited about rereading it (I made him wait until I had finished it though).
Dirty Girls' Good Books 